🇯🇲 Jamaica
Montego Bay
Montego Bay — "MoBay" to Jamaicans — is the island's second city and its tourism capital, a crescent of turquoise Caribbean water backed by the Blue Mountains, a city that has been welcoming visitors since the 18th century when British aristocrats discovered the therapeutic properties of Doctor's Cave Beach. The name derives from the Spanish "manteca" (lard) — lard from wild boar was exported from the bay's harbour in the 16th century — a detail that hints at the long, layered history beneath the all-inclusive resort experience. Montego Bay's Heritage Quarter on Sam Sharpe Square (named for a leader of the 1831 Christmas Rebellion that accelerated Jamaican emancipation) has colonial chattel houses, the Cage historic building and the Burchell Memorial Baptist Church where Sam Sharpe preached. Beyond the heritage, MoBay is the authentic entry point to Jamaica: the Scotchies jerk pits where whole hogs smoke over pimento wood, the dancehall culture that emerged from the Jamaican sound system tradition and the Blue Mountains coffee that is reputedly the finest in the world. The Rose Hall Great House — a plantation house whose mistress Annie Palmer is said to haunt it — sits on the hillside above the city as a reminder of what Jamaica's prosperity was built on.